Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1875 — A Family of Astronomers. [ARTICLE]

A Family of Astronomers.

What an example and what instruction may be found in the long career of William Herschel, who passed half a century in sounding the mysterious depths of the universe! The son of a poor musician—burdened with a numerous family—he embraced the paternal profession, and went, when twenty years old, to try his fortune in England. He barely earned a living by giving music lessons and directing concerts or oratories, when he was appointed organist at Halifax, then soon after filled the same office in Bath. He passed his leisure time in studying works on astronomy. As he was not rich enough to purchase a telescope he went to work, and, after a thousand attempts, succeeded in making, in 1774, a five-foot reflector, with which he observed Saturn’s ring. Encouraged by this first success the organist of Bath entered upon the construction of mirrors of seven feet, then ten and twenty feet of focus. He made more than 200 before attaining the desired perfection, and the total number of mirrors that he worked upon in succession exceeded 400. In 1781 he had the good fortune to discover the planet Uranus, which extended the boundary of the solar system. He was then forty-three years old. This discovery drew upon him the attention of Europe; George 111. granted him a pension and a dwelling at Slough, near Windsor Castle. He then commenced that methodical review of the heavens by means of which he discovered more than 2,000 nebulae, and suggested so many new views of the universe. The greatest part of his 1 abor was executed with instruments of moderate dimensions; he rarely used the great telescope of forty feet, the mirror of which was easily tarnished by the action of the moisture of the night; he used it, however, in the discovery of the sixth satellite of . Saturn. William Herschel died in 1822; the year before his death, at the age of eightythree, he communicated his last paper to the Astronomical Society of London, which since its foundation had chosen him for President. In all his researches he was assisted by his sister Caroline, who had lived with him ever since she was twenty-two years old, and who aided him in his observations as well as in his calculations. In this way he was able toastonish the scientific world by the rapidity with which his publications succeeded each other. Caroline Herschel died at Hanover, her native city, in 1849, at the age of ninety-eight. Sir John Herschel, the only son of the great astronomer, worthily continued these illustrious traditions. He resumed and completed the exploration of the heavens commenced by his father, at first at Slough, then at the Cape of Good Hope, where he transported a telescope of twenty feet. He died in 1871, after hav ing contributed by'labors of the highest order to the progress of science. One of his sons, Alexander Herschel, is equally devoted to astronomical pursuits. —Emma M. Converse, in Popular Science Monthly.